By GUY PERRIN Freelancer
The men and women of the Western Oregon track team showed just how hard they’ve been working during the offseason in what was a historic day at Dempsey Indoor Facility in Seattle for the teams’ opening meet of the year, the UW Indoor Preview.
The highlight of the afternoon for the men was when the 4×800 meter relay team comprised of Brady Beagley, Josh Hanna, Sam Naffziger and Josh Dempsey put together a school-record breaking time of 7:54.22 en route to a 5th place finish.
Meanwhile, Cody Warner posted the second fastest time in school history in the 60-meter dash, running it in 6.96 seconds.
On the women’s side, Stephanie Stuckey set a school record herself, completing the 1,000-meter run in 3:02.96, narrowly beating the previous record by 1 second, to take home 16th place.
“I felt great. It was one of the first good races that I’ve had in a long time. I didn’t even know what the record was because I didn’t want to worry about time. This season, I’m all about having fun and running well. That race was a great example of how important that is,” Stuckey said.
She added, “I’m really looking forward to seeing my teammates compete and represent Western. Being a student athlete is hard. Heck, being a student is hard. It’s all about doing what you love. If you don’t love it, it gets really hard to keep going.”
In the 600-meter run, Suzanne Van De Grift finished in 1:41.14, not only cracking the top 10 all time at WOU, but also finishing 4th amongst non-Division 1 or club runners.
It was a big day for the throwers, as Emmi Collier and Alex Green finished 11th and 15th, respectively. Green’s throw of 12.45 meters was a personal best and with that, she joins Collier in the all-time top 10 for women’s indoor shot put.
The Wolves will take a week off before they look to build on their performance Jan. 30, at the Husky Invite in Seattle.
